Creation and the Flood: A Journey of Scripture, Science and Faith by John K. Griffin

Author:John K. Griffin [Griffin, John K.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Proclamation Publishing
Published: 2020-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

Exodus 31:17

Later on in Exodus, the Lord instructs Moses to reemphasize the Sabbath with the Israelites:

31:12And the Lord said to Moses, 13“You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

In verse 13 we see that the Sabbath is a sign between God and the Israelites, a way for them to remember that, as Genesis 1 teaches, God made them and set them apart for relationship with Him and to be His representatives. In verse 14 the Israelites are told they are not just to acknowledge such, but to participate in the relationship via Sabbath observance. They are to keep the Sabbath because it is holy for them. The Sabbath is holy for them because it is holy for God and because they are in relationship with a holy God.

In both verses 14 and 15, God institutes the death penalty for profaning the Sabbath. This seems extreme but merely highlights that profaning the Sabbath is an extreme thing to do. I imagine that a Levitical priest may have explained it to a struggling Israelite thusly:

A holy God created you to be in relationship with Him, and you are part of the people group that He specifically designated to be His light to the nations. The Creator of the universe cares for you and provides for you. He has instituted the Sabbath as a key means for you to commune with Him. The Sabbath was made for you.[167] By disregarding the Sabbath, you are walking away from Him, rejecting Him—rejecting a loving God who has made Himself known to you and has chosen you to be one of His people! This is supremely disrespectful and is akin to apostasy. By rejecting the Sabbath, you are rejecting your God and your people and can no longer be counted as one of us.

And this is not just an Old Testament thing. In the New Testament, rejecting God leads to eternal death: “But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).

Next we see in verse 16 that, indeed, the Sabbath is a covenant.

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